One Monk's Journey Through Faith

The Lord's Resistance Army has terrorized three countries in Africa for 25 years now. They've raided whole villages at times. This involves killing or raping the adults while abducting the children. Boys become soldiers while girls become sex slaves, or if there's a shortage of boys, they become soldiers too. So far the number of abducted, not including those killed, is 66,000 children.

If you've seen LOST, then the flashbacks of Mr. Ecko's past are somewhat reminiscent of the LRA's atrocities. They seek only to devour whatever they can and cause suffering. Their very name comes from the claim that the Holy Spirit has inspired their actions.

In March, there was a bill in congress called the LRA Disarmament and Recovery Act. There was one senator who placed a hold on the bill, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. In response to this, many of my friends slept outside his office and many from around the country came to the "Holdout" as it was called. Although I couldn't be there in person I sent my encouragement and prayers. If you want an on-the-ground diary of the event, my friend Jessica wrote of her experiences over the course of a few days.

Eventually the hold was lifted and the bill went through. The President was tasked with coming up with a strategy for disarming the LRA and also helping Uganda to recover from this devastation. On May 24th, President Obama promised to come with a strategy by signing this bill into law.

Please sign the pledge to remind Obama of his promise to carry out this bill. We're shooting for ten thousand signatures and this link has been on my FB news feed pretty much non-stop for six weeks now.

Please sign the pledge and keep this issue in prayer. This is why government officials have the sword: to punish wrongdoing and promote welfare. The strategy includes economic, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic elements designed to stop the LRA, cut off their influence, and rehabilitate former and current child soldiers. We have a suggested blueprint for the strategy here.

Thank you for reading this. Please sign and pray. It's time for Obama to unveil his strategy. The due date was my birthday, September 20th, and he's yet to release his strategy. No doubt the oil spill and what-not threw him off, but it's still time to do this.